Mitch Trubisky was sacked twice in the first half of today’s Pittsburgh Steelers loss against the New England Patriots, and he took the blame for both of them.
“Those were on me. I think one of them was on a naked, I was trying to make a scramble play out of it, and then down in the red zone, we had time, I should’ve got it out. I thought the O-Line protected really well today, great communications, and those two sacks were on me,” Trubisky said in his press conference, via the team’s YouTube channel.
Trubisky took a brutal sack with the first half winding down, as the Steelers tried to get into field goal range. Instead of throwing the ball away, Trubisky tried to run to the sideline and was chased down by Patriots outside linebacker Matthew Judon. With three seconds left in the half, the Steelers had no choice but to try a hail mary, and it effectively ended their chances of scoring on the drive.
If Trubisky is going to be an effective NFL quarterback, he can’t hold onto the ball too long. With how the offensive line has played, Pittsburgh can’t waste opportunities and lose yards when the line does its job. Trubisky getting outside the pocket and not getting rid of the ball when rushers close in on him is a trait that’s going to hinder his performance if he can’t improve on it.
The offense looked lifeless today, and Trubisky was a big reason why. He didn’t look good, and taking bad sacks certainly didn’t help. You can’t score 14 points and expect to win in the NFL, and Trubisky is going to have to be better moving forward.
If he’s able to get rid of the ball in a timely fashion, even if it’s just throwing the ball away, he’ll give the Steelers more chances to make plays and not cost them yards. They already have a hard enough time gaining 10 yards for a first down, and giving up negative yards by taking bad sacks is only going to stall the offense even more.
With a short week coming up, hopefully, Trubisky is able to clean up his performance. The Browns have two really talented pass rushers in Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney, and if Trubisky doesn’t get rid of the ball in time, they could make Thursday Night a long one for this Steelers offense. With the Browns also sitting at 1-1, Thursday night is a prime opportunity for Pittsburgh to pick up a game in what’s going to be a tightly contested battle for the AFC North. They won’t be able to do that if they’re losing yardage on bad sacks because Trubisky doesn’t get rid of the ball.
